


maybe (just maybe) we're starting something good

by gardeniahs



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Budding Love, Drabble, M/M, Summer, Teen Romance, bc i love luren, i kinda want to make a collection to put luren stuff, renjun is semi confident gay, yukhei is shy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 15:37:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15888969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardeniahs/pseuds/gardeniahs
Summary: yukhei can't call it falling in love just yet, but it's close.





	maybe (just maybe) we're starting something good

**Author's Note:**

> hi!!!!! im kind of just posting this to let ppl know im alive lol. this was... SUPPOSED to be a flashback scene that's part of a longfic but that took a left for a lot of diff reasons sfdsfds um!!! sry my notes r always so long but updates r as follows:
> 
> \- part three of long distance markhyuck is in the planning stages!   
> \- i hope u guys enjoy this .. i wanna post more little writings like this so let me know if i should!!  
> \- i made a listography for anyone interested in keepin up with with future #projects . on there u can see what im working on and planning! https://listography.com/gardeniahs  
> \- thank u

 

 **June 19 th, 2018 – RENJUN COMES TO THE MOVIE STORE**  
  
“Huang Renjun! What brings you here?”

Renjun is wearing a big t-shirt and little shorts. He looks small and girly, thinks Yukhei, but 1. Renjun always looks like that, and 2. There isn’t anything wrong with it, Renjun is beautiful still.  
Renjun is browsing movies to the left of the counter Yukhei is sitting at as he handles the slow business all on his own. _Handle_ means Yukhei plays Animal Crossing on his 3DS XL and eats mike and ikes while listening to the radio he'd convinced Doyoung to let him keep at the counter. He’d said it was for the customers but they both knew it was really for him. Yukhei likes slow business days because he doesn't have to pretend to take his job seriously.

“Just looking.” Renjun says quietly.   
“You’re in the VHS section.” Yukhei says, as if Renjun can’t tell. “You into vintage stuff? I never took you for a hipster.” Yukhei pauses and giggles. “Actually, I kind of did.”  
Renjun smiles. “I would never call myself a hipster. I let other people do it for me. Hipsters who call themselves hipsters are posers.”  
“That’s a good philosophy.” Yukhei nods. “So VHS, huh?”  
  
“Yeah,” Renjun finds a movie that he likes, it’s evident by the way he smiles as he reads the back cover. “My mom has a VCR. She gave it to me recently, probably because I use it more than her anyway, so I’m here to get new movies.”  
Yukhei doesn’t say anything else until Renjun approaches the counter with three tapes. Yukhei reads as he scans.  
“Flower of Flesh and Blood, that one’s gory, it was okay though- Sun Valley Serenade, and Beauty and the Beast! That’s $10.25.”  
“I really like this store,” Renjun notes as he swipes his card. “It’s really affordable.”  
“It’s our only good quality. We haven’t updated our inventory in like a year. Movie stores are dying out. We suck.”  
Renjun laughs and it’s melodic, and Yukhei tells himself _no, heart, absolutely not—you can’t fucking do this right now._

Yukhei is almost sad when Renjun has his bag of tapes and it’s time for their short time together to be done. He hates it, this weird nagging feeling in his chest. Attachment.   
  
Renjun stands in front of the counter, bag and receipt in hand, for a longer time than any customer usually does. He looks at Yukhei like he’s contemplating something, but it doesn’t feel like the movies where they’re caught in each other’s eyes and music is softly playing in the background- there’s a political debate happening in static waves through Yukhei’s radio and they’re awkwardly staring at one another in hopes that the other boy will speak.  
Yukhei speaks. He says, “Uh-“ and is absolutely fucking relieved when Renjun cuts him off because he didn’t actually have anything useful to say.

“Do you want to, come over sometime and watch these?” Renjun raises the bag. “We haven’t spoken since school let out, because you know, you’re more Mark’s friend than mine… I wouldn’t mind hanging out?”

Yukhei says nothing. He kind of wants to explode.

If he was playing a DS game, the screen would light up in colors, something like

_**CUTE BOY WANTS YOU TO COME OVER** _

And his options would be

  * _**SAY NO**_
  * _**SAY YES**_
  * _**CRY**_



The second and third option look equally enticing. Yukhei, for the sake of his dignity, goes for the second and saves the third for later.   
  
“That would be really cool, Renjun.” Yukhei nods lightly. “We should like, um, totally. Do that.”  
Renjun brightens, swallows the anxiety that came with the previous moment of silence.  
“Cool! My number is uh- give me your phone?”  
  
And Yukhei does, after spending 30 seconds trying to find it under all the snack bags he has lying on the counter, and watches Renjun make a contact for himself, _RJ_ with two sunflower emojis.

 _He doesn't have a contact photo_ , thinks Yukhei. _That means I have like, an excuse to ask him for a selfie.  
  
  
_ That thought in itself makes his blood pressure rise, but he's snapped out of the feverish feeling when Renjun hands him his phone back. "I have to go now. If I'm gone with the car for more than like, two seconds my mom gets antsy." Says Renjun with playful frusturaton, and Yukhei is  _endeared_ , he's _swooning_.

“I’ll, uh, message you then?” Is what Yukhei says when Renjun actually makes his way to the door.

Renjun turns toward the counter, hand still on the door handle and says, "Message me?"  
"Um," Yukhei stutters. "Yes? About- the movie?"  
Renjun tilts his head to the side, genuine confusion spread across his features. "Movie?"

What the hell is going on? Did Yukhei mishear him? Is Renjun even here right now, or is this a heat induced mirage? Were those mike and ikes he just ate, or was it something else? Is-

Renjun throws his entire body back in a laugh, snapping Yukhei out of the inner turmoil he was experiencing.   
"You looked just like that gif of the lady with all the math symbols around her head." Renjun wipes a tear from his eye with a breath. "Anyway, I was only joking. Of course you can message me, I meant what I said about hanging out."  
  
Yukhei stares at the shorter boy blankly for a long time. Then he laughs too, out of relief, not because anything is funny. "You seriously got me, dude. I'm dumb. You see this?" Yukhei raises his coke can. "Dumb bitch juice."  
  
  
Renjun giggles and bites his lip. He says, "I'll see you soon, Yukhei." Before pushing his way through the door.   
  
Too-bright sunlight pours in through the open door and it engulfs Renjun as he leaves like an angel returning to heaven, which is a very accurate to describe Huang Renjun in Yukhei's opinion. When the door closes the light leaves, and all that's left behind is the ghosts of his laughter and the sounds of the radio station finally playing a song after like, two hours of old people yelling. Yukhei looks to his left at the shelf where Renjun had just been browsing movies. There's an empty space where Flower of Flesh and Blood used to be.  
  
 _Yukhei swallows down the feeling of attachment. He would deal with it later._  


**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed this! reminder that my listography for upcoming works is here: https://listography.com/gardeniahs  
> pls leave ur comments and kudos and stuff ! i enjoy talking with yall and seeing tht ppl enjoy what i create after all haha have a good afternoon xx


End file.
